Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar (born 1949) was a leader of New Spanish Cinema in the post-Franco era. Known for films such as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Almodovar was praised for his insightful depiction of women. After a creative downturn in the 1990s, a mature Almodovar emerged at the end of the decade and into the 2000s, with films like All About My Mother.

Almodovar was born on September 25, 1949 (some sources say 1951), in Calzada de Calatrava, La Mancha, Spain. This is a small village in a remote part of Spain. Almodovar moved with his family to Extremadura, Spain, when he was eight. There, his father ran a local gas station and made wine at home. The family included his mother, Francisca Caballero, two sisters, and one brother.

Almodovar showed promise as a writer from an early age. When he was about ten years old, he...